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Big eyebrow trend is big business for cosmetic industry

Women, and men, paying thousands of dollars for look made popular by model Cara Delevingne, actress Eva Mendes and the Kardashian sisters.

LashForever owner Lauren Spencer, working on the eyebrows of customer Kristina Glavan. "I always felt my eyes were so small and dull, but now I feel they are so much more accentuated," said Glavan. (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

LashForever's eyebrow extensions cost up to $250 and last a month.
(Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Technician Elena Petrolekas works on the eyelashes of Christina Collantes at LashForever. The hour-long procedure is repeated every two to three weeks. (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

After years of tweezing, waxing and threading their eyebrows to obsoleteness, women are paying good money, thousands of dollars even, for bushy, caterpillar-like brows.

And GTA businesses are cashing in on the trend typified by the Kardashian sisters, British model Cara Delevingne and Hollywood actress Eva Mendes.

“It’s all about that big, full brow. The Pamela Anderson marker look is not doing it anymore,” said Lauren Spencer, owner of Etobicoke’s LashForever, which is touted as a North American pioneer in semi-permanent eyebrow extensions. It’s an $85 to $125, hour-long procedure that’s repeated every two to three weeks.

“It’s great if you have thick brows and you’ve just been plucking them thin and you can let them grow out, but the reality is a lot of people either genetically don’t have thick brows or have been plucking them for years and when you try to grow them out they’re super patchy,” said Toronto facial plastic surgeon Jamil Asaria.

With consumers no longer content to fill in sparse brows with pencils, powders or even permanent makeup, Asaria is one of several practitioners realizing a boost in demand for eyebrow transplants, which can run from $1,500 to $6,500. In a three- to four-hour procedure, the hairs are harvested, typically from the scalp, but also from arms and legs. Last week, Asaria’s clients at Face Cosmetic Surgery included a Russian supermodel, a male Bay Street banker and a young mother.

While scars or serious conditions — thyroid issues, cancer treatment — can lead to thin brows, at Toronto’s Donovan Medical the majority of people seeking eyebrow transplants are “very healthy patients that are saying, ‘Hey, I’d love to have thicker eyebrows, can you help me?’ ” said dermatologist and hair transplant specialist Jeff Donovan.

“I’ve seen a huge spike in demand for hair transplantation for eyebrows; probably an eight, tenfold increase over the last two, three years. Eyebrow restoration makes up a good proportion of the practice now.”

LashForever, which established itself with permanent eyelash extensions four years ago, manufactures its brows from silk-mink sourced in Europe. Spencer happened on the concept for her proprietary HDiBrow Extensions accidentally.

“Last year, I was just playing around with doing lash extensions and an eyelash fell on top of my girlfriend’s eyebrow hair and I thought how amazing that would be if we could have an eyebrow extension,” she recalled. “I contacted my chemist and said this is what we have to do.

“Just like lash extensions, we’re adhering one brow-like hair onto each natural brow hair with a clear, medical-grade adhesive, making it fuller.”

Business analyst Kristina Glavan recently spent nearly $300 on first-time eyelash and eyebrow extensions at LashForever on the recommendation of friends.

“I have a lot of gaps in my eyebrows,” she said. “Before I would just fill them in with a pencil. I always felt my eyes were so small and dull, but now I feel they are so much more accentuated. Even when I shower and get out, they still look amazing and very angelic, which I love.

Donovan also prescribes the topical medications Latisse ($40 monthly) and Minoxidil ($10 montly), which were designed for eyelash and scalp hair growth but can be used “off label” for eyebrows.

He cautioned that people should have thinning brows diagnosed before opening their wallets.

“There are 145 reasons for eyebrow hair loss,” he explained. “It’s very common that patients may try something to enhance their eyebrows and find it didn’t work. If you’re losing eyebrows and you have a thyroid condition, until you get that condition fixed there’s no treatment that can help your eyebrows.”

It’s also critical that the person doing the transplant is careful in matching existing eyebrow hairs and angles, otherwise the results will look artificial, he said.

Although permanent, an eyebrow transplant is not maintenance free, he added.

“It grows the same way as the hair would in the back of the scalp. They’ll be trimming these hairs every two to four weeks; otherwise those hairs will grow very long and over the face.”

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